A man has revealed he felt very happy after meeting his 32-year-old daughter for the first time.
Bongani Ntombela, his daughter Sindisiwe and his three-year- old grandchild met for the first time
The 54-year-old identified as Bongani Ntombela from Umlazi, South Africa and his daughter, Sindisiwe Khathi were brought together at a meeting organised by friends and neighbours on Tuesday.
Speaking to the SunTeam on Wednesday, he said he was still over the moon and would die a happy man because he had met his child. He said he had been searching for her everywhere. He had left her mum while she was still pregnant.
He said last week, a neighbour in F section told him to go to R section to see whether he knew Sindisiwe, who was looking for her family.
“I met her and after sharing our stories, we realised we were father and daughter. She even had a photo of me, which she said her aunt had given to her,” he said.
“I’m excited to meet my daughter after so many years of searching, but I will do a DNA test just to be 100% sure before we slaughter a goat to welcome her to my family.”
Bongani said he separated from Sindisiwe’s mum while she was pregnant in 1986. He said he lived in KwaMashu at the time, while Sindisiwe’s mum was at Richmond Farm.
He said he stopped visiting her because of political violence as KwaMashu was an ANC stronghold and Richmond Farm was under IFP control.
Sindisiwe said after her mum died when she was six, she went to live with her aunt in Kokstad. At 17, she moved to Durban to look for a job and people started telling her there was a man who looked like her.